The invention relates to a management method and arrangement for outpatient electrocardiography (ECG) on a patient.
It is known practice to record an electrocardiogram (ECG) over a relatively long period of, for example, 12 hours, 24 hours or else 7 days and to then read and evaluate the electrocardiogram. Such a long-term ECG is used, for example, to enable better detection and assessment of arrhythmias. In addition, electrocardiography methods are also known in which individual shorter ECG sections are recorded as a so-called event ECG according to stipulated time specifications and/or after manual or automatic triggering during the occurrence of specific events such as palpitations or skipped heartbeats and are transmitted to a doctor or a medical centre, possibly in a trans-telephonic manner, for evaluation. In the text below, the term “outpatient electrocardiography” should be understood as meaning both long-term ECGs and event ECGs for recording shorter sections and combinations of both variants.
In order to record an outpatient ECG, it is known practice to use portable ECG recorders which can be connected to electrodes fitted to the patient via discharge cables. However, for event ECGs in particular, ECG recorders are also known which, for the purpose of recording an ECG section using electrodes formed thereon, can be brought into contact with the patient directly, that is to say without discharge cables. In the text below, the term “ECG recorder” should be understood as meaning both of said variants of ECG recording devices, that is to say those with electrodes formed thereon for directly taking an ECG on the patient and those which, in order to take an ECG, can be connected to electrodes fitted to the patient via discharge cables.
For example, GETEMED Medizin- und Informationstechnik AG in 14513 Teltow produces a recorder for recording long-term ECGs under the name CardioMem CM 4000. This recorder comprises a large colour display which displays relevant information including the ECG profile. However, ECG recorders are also known which do not have any operating elements for direct input and do not have a display for displaying relevant information, but rather are connected to external devices for the purpose of operation or communication.
When initializing an outpatient ECG using such an ECG recorder, a so-called “hook-up” to a control ECG is generally carried out before the actual recording. Depending on the embodiment of the ECG recorder, the hook-up can be carried out directly on the ECG recorder using operating elements provided thereon and a display or alternatively using a PC or notebook connected to the ECG recorder or a mobile device (for example a tablet PC or smartphone) which is connected to the ECG recorder and on which special software is installed for this purpose.
In the case of a conventional variant of initializing an ECG, in which the hook-up is carried out using a mobile device connected to the ECG recorder, the information and settings which are required for the ECG recording and are matched to the patient are generally first of all transmitted from the mobile device to the ECG recorder. Furthermore, the correct function of the ECG recording is usually verified using a control ECG. Only then is the actual ECG recording started.
In this case, in particular, a mobile device can be connected to the ECG recorder wirelessly, for example via Bluetooth or WLAN, for the purpose of initialization or displaying the ECG profile.
It must be ensured in this case, for reasons of security and data protection, that users of mobile devices, on which the corresponding application software (“app”) which can be obtained by anyone online is installed, only gain access to the control of the ECG recorder or to the data relating to the ECG profile which are stored thereon according to their respective provided authorizations. This is very important, in particular, during such medical use in which sensitive patient data are generated, stored and used. Without further precautions for safeguarding security and data protection, unauthorized parties could download a corresponding app from the Internet and could possibly carry out dangerous interventions in the ECG recordings or unauthorized access to patient data.